Slow movement at Gaza border after Israel reopens Rafah crossing

GAZA/CAIRO/JERUSALEM –

Israel on Monday reopened the Rafah crossing to a trickle of Palestinians for the first time in months, a major step in a U.S.-backed plan to end the war, though strict Israeli security checks slowed the process.

The Rafah crossing, standing amid rubble and ruins, is the sole route in or out for nearly all of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents.

It was largely shut for most of the war, and reopening it ​to allow even limited access to the outside world is one of the last steps required under the initial phase of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached in October.